Our Intent

When we first moved to Sweden, we knew that the language transition is far easier on younger children than older ones. Our assessment was that Tertia (not quite 8 when we moved) would have an easy job learning Swedish and settling in, Secondus (just 10) would be mostly OK, but Primus (12) would struggle.

The choice of learning environment was therefore critical to us. We aimed to get Secondus and Tertia into the local school, where an immersion environment would get them quickly up the language curve, and recognised that Primus would need a more gentle introduction. We had a native Swedish friend whose daughter had recently started at the Jacobsberg Internationalla Engelska Skolan, and the more we learned about it, the better it sounded.

We appreciated the following points in particular:

It’s a mixed environment where both languages are spoken and used as the teaching medium. Therefore, ability in Swedish is not a prerequisite for learning other things, nor for making friends.

As the school’s identity is based on preparing Swedes for a global environment where the common language is English, being an English native speaker is actually a positive thing. Our friend’s daughter had only really been learning English for about 4 months in that environment, but was already conversationally fluent.

We thought therefore that this would be the balance: where Swedish language would seep in by osmosis in addition to formal classes, but without being a barrier.

The school’s ethos is pretty strict for a Swedish school. While it doesn’t quite go as far as uniforms (in Sweden? Crazy talk!), it has many of the characteristics of a high end state school in the UK: teachers are addressed by their surnames and wear business dress, discipline is firm (but not uber-strict) – no mobiles, no gum chewing, no hats, no underwear on show – expectations of behaviour and achievement are high and there is a house system.

Knowing Primus’ way of thinking, this amount of structure is helpful even if not particularly enjoyed at the time by moodswinging teenagers. It echoes many of the culture points of the high school he briefly attended in Scotland and where he was flourishing

Reality

However, while getting Secondus and Tertia into the local school was pretty easy, entry to IES was a lot tougher, even though we had two on our doorsteps. You see, all the factors that make high end UK schools attractive to UK parents are equally attractive to ambitious Swedes, particularly when you throw in the sweetener of ending up at a native level of proficiency in English.

All state schools in Sweden (and certainly in Stockholm) use a common application process, which involves a queue. And the queue for all the IES schools is 4+ years. Not quite the put them down for Eton at birth, but in that ballpark. And in Sweden, a queue is a queue and you can’t jump it.

Back to the drawing board: Primus ended up at the Villastads Skola. Which is a good school, in the classic Swedish tradition. Relaxed, collaborative. All the stuff we value.

Outcome

School has just this week ended for the summer. In the 18 months we’ve been here, Tertia has (as predicted) flourished. She now has pretty good conversational Swedish, certainly plenty to hold her own in classroom and social environments. She has friends, some of whom are bilingual, and chats happily flitting between languages without a worry in the world.

However, for the boys, it really hasn’t worked out.

Neither of them have learned any Swedish worth talking about. Neither of them have made (m)any friends (Secondus a little better in this respect). Neither of them are learning in school. Primus comes home every lunchtime to avoid socialising. Secondus spends most lessons in a corner reading Harry Potter in English. Not good. Both of them are stressed and angry most of the time in school.

In Spring, we had a meeting with the school where this was put very clearly to us, and that the school were as worried as we are. And Lucy and I realised this wasn’t sustainable.

Possibility

In mid May, I received a call that changed everything.

Back before Christmas, having realised that things weren’t really working well, I’d put all 3 into the queues of every single IES in the city. Including ones that weren’t yet open, so hadn’t had the chance to build up the 4+ year queues.

In mid May, one of the ones that wasn’t yet open called me, and told me that – while he wasn’t assured of a place – Secondus was in the top 10 of the queue for his year with entry in August this year: on opening day of the school. Would we like to come for an Open Day?

Would I? Would I? I think I’d said Yes before the admissions admin had finished the sentence. But what about Primus? Well, he was quite high in the queue, but they are only offering one class in his year, and he’s not top 10. So he’s welcome to come, but much less likely to get in.

So we went for the Open Day with Secondus (Primus being a teenage role model stayed in bed). Now it is a good 20-30 minutes away by public bus, whereas current school is 200m from our door, which is a worry for an 11yo who is a little afraid of the language skills needed to navigate the public transport system, and hasn’t really travelled independently before. However, we went to see it.

IES Kista

And it’s wonderful. It’s a closed campus right next door to the transport and retail hub in the science and technically focused suburb of Kista (Swedish friends will know it as the old KTH campus). Secondus experienced a few lessons, taught in English, and we got to pump the staff for information.

Talking about it together with Secondus made us realise that this is the environment he needs in Sweden. Where he can let his natural talents in Maths and Design flourish without the language barrier, while allowing the Swedish abilities to catch up at their own pace.

And we were confirmed in our assessment that it is the right place for Primus too, for all the rationale we’d set out at the start.

So, now we wait while place offers to other children are accepted and places filled. Or not, moving both of them up the queue.

Resolution

Last week, I received a call: now that all the first round offers had been responded to, IES Kista are delighted to formally offer a place to Secondus. There are of course paper forms to fill, but a simple email would confirm his place.

Dear Reader: that email went back to them the same day and the forms have now been filled in and sent.

And as you’d expect, having one sibling at a school is a weighting factor for the others’ queue status. So Primus was still too low to have full confidence of getting a place, but it was a moving target.

Next day, I received another call. Secondus’ acceptance has moved Primus so far up the queue, and his class have such a pattern of offers and acceptances, that they are formally offering Primus a place too. Same process to follow, but a firm offer.

So it looks like both boys have had their last day at HVSS, their last day of full Swedish immersion, and from August will be learning in English.

One of the joys of Stockholm is that it is full of water and green space. Combining both is the island of Djurgården, which contains (as its name would suggest) Stockholm’s zoo.

Ah, but it’s so much more than a zoo.

Yes, it contains small but pretty naturalistic enclosures for many native species, including Wolves, Brown Bears, Moose, Reindeer and European Bison. But it also contains many typical historic buildings, either specially constructed in reproduction or disassembled, transported and rebuilt on-site. UK visitors may be getting the sense of Ironbridge or Beamish, and that’s about right, but going back to pre-industrial times too.

The peak season for this is summer, but on Christmas Eve, it’s open for free, which makes for quite a lovely family afternoon out and as it’s on a hill, it wears out the little legs and ensures a good night’s sleep awaiting Santa.

Our family has been obsessively following the situation of the Gävle Goat (‘Goat’ is ‘Get’ in Swedish, and like all Gs followed by soft vowels like E, is roughly pronounced “Yevle Yet”).

It’s a thing both pitiful and hilarious: a huge straw goat erected every Advent in the major town square, but for many years has been torched, presumably as a witty student jape. Some cities have statues to add traffic cones to as their major drunken student temptation, Gävle has a huge flammable goat.

The history is truly awful, reading like an extended version of Swamp Castle.

1969

Burnt on New Year’s Eve

1970

Burnt, only six hours after it was assembled.

1972

Sabotaged & collapsed

1974

Burnt.

1976

Hit by a car.

1978

Kicked to pieces.

1979

Burnt even before it was erected. A new one was built and fireproofed. It was destroyed and broken into pieces.

1980

Burnt on Christmas Eve.

1983

The legs were destroyed.

1984

Burnt down on 12 December

1985

Enclosed by a 2 metres high metal fence, guarded by Securitas and soldiers from the Gävle I 14 Infantry Regiment. Burnt down in January.

1986

Two goats were built, the Southern Merchants’ and the School of Vasa’s. The bigger goat burnt down the night before Christmas Eve.

1987

A heavily fireproofed goat was built. Burnt down a week before Christmas.

1989

Again, the goat burnt down before it was assembled. Financial contributions from the public were raised to rebuild a goat that was burnt down in January.

1991

Burnt down on Christmas Eve.

1992

The goat was burnt down eight days after it was built. Rebuilt, but burned down on 20 December.

1995

A Norwegian was arrested for attempting to burn down the goat. Burnt down on the morning of Christmas Day.

1997

Damaged by fireworks.

1998

Burnt down on 11 December, even though there was a major blizzard.

1999

Burnt down only a couple of hours after it was erected.

2000

Burnt down a couple of days before New Year’s Eve.

2001

Set on fire on 23 December

2003

Burnt down on 12 December.

2004

Burnt 21 December

2005

Burnt by unknown vandals reportedly dressed as Santa and the gingerbread man, by shooting a flaming arrow at the goat at 21:00 on 3 December.

2006

On the night of 15 December at 03:00, someone tried to set fire to the goat by dousing the right front leg in petrol.

2008

On 26 December there was an attempt to burn down the Goat but patriotic passers-by managed to extinguish the fire. The following day the goat finally succumbed to the flames ignited by an unknown assailant at 03:50 CET.

2009

A person attempted to set the goat on fire the night of 7 December. On the night of 23 December before 04:00 the goat was set on fire and was burned to the frame, even though it had a thick layer of snow on its back. The goat had two online webcams which were put out of service by a DoS attack, instigated by computer hackers just before the burning.

2010

One of the guards tasked with protecting the goat offered payment to leave his post so that the goat could be stolen via helicopter

This year, the town was determined that it should survive. So they moved it to be right next to the taxi rank, put a webcam on it (despite 2009’s experience) and set up a Twitter account to proclaim its ongoing survival, greeting the dawn of each new day of life.

Investigative report: my late night visitors turned out to be own security team on watch patrol while I was asleep. Puh!
#Gavlegoat

In our house, we’re getting really quite obsessed. Lucy has the webcam open in a constant browser tab and checks many times a day. And we do a daily report at breakfast.

We decided it needed a name, rather than just being “The Gävle Goat”. And I did my usual Eddie Izzard thing and plumped for “Geoff”. Because “Geoff the Gävle Goat” or “Yeff the Yevle Yet” is just funny.

I can’t begin to describe how beautiful Stockholm is in Autumn. Because the city is so much open space, with so many deciduous trees, October is a riot of rich warm colours. Every tree has a little carpet of gold around it, stunning in sunshine, but still wonderful by streetlight after dark.

I haven’t even started to capture the overall power of this, but here are a few hints.

Season Summary

Our back garden through the season. Compare the difference a few weeks makes to the foliage in our garden.

Posts navigation

Sweden has a whole publishing industry servicing adult learners of Swedish language. Because when you’re just learning a language as an adult — or even a teenager — you really don’t want “See Spot Run! Run, Spot, Run!” you want something that will stimulate your brain in content as well as language learning. Otherwise it’s a total chore.

Every library (certainly in Stockholm) has a lättläst section. I’m currently reading the lättläst version of Let The Right One In (yes, the book that the movie was based on. It is set in a very nearby suburb that I travel through on the Tunnelbana every day).

And then there’s also 8sidor.se – grownup news, but with limited vocabulary and simple grammar. I’ve no idea whether the UK has anything like this. Certainly a business opportunity for someone if not.Continue reading →

Last week in our SFI classes, we spent the whole class learning Swedish easter traditions. From påskägg, filled with påskgoddis (but not made of chocolate) via påskkärring (notpåskhäxor, even though they are witches) to påskharen and påskris.

Even daffodils have an Easter theme: they are påskliljor, and are blooming all over the city right now.